13 Union ministers bite the dust as Modi magic fails

BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.

Irani, who had clinched the Amethi Lok Sabha seat after defeating Rahul Gandhi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate and a close aide of the Gandhi family Kishori Lal Sharma by 1,67,196 lakh votes.

In Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar lost to Shashi Tharoor of the Congress by over 16,077 votes.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son was arrested in connection with the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri of October 2021, lost to the Samajwadi Party's Utkarsh Verma by over 34,329 votes.

The SP contested the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with the Congress.

Minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar was defeated by Trinamool Congress candidate Arup Chakraborty in Bankura Lok Sabha seat of West Bengal by a margin of 32,778 votes.

In Jharkhand's Khunti Lok Sabha constituency, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and sitting MP Arjun Munda lost to Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by 1,49,675 lakh votes, according to the Election Commission.

Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Kailash Choudhary stood in third position in Rajasthan's Barmer, with a gap of 4.48 lakh votes from the winning candidate, Ummeda Ram Beniwal.

Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying L Murugan lost to DMK's A Raja by a big margin of 2,40,585 lakh votes in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris.

BJP's north Bengal face and Union minister of state for home Nisith Pramanik lost the Cooch Behar seat to TMC's Jagadish Chandra Basunia by over 39,000 votes.

Union minister Sanjeev Balyan lost the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat to Samajwadi Party's Harendra Singh Malik by a margin of over 24,000 votes, while Nityanand Rai grabbed the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, defeating nearest rival Alok Mehta of the RJD by 4,661 votes.

Among the winners, Union Home Minister Amit Shah swept the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, defeating his nearest Congress rival Sonal Patel by 7,44,716 lakh votes.

Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh won a third consecutive term from the prestigious Lucknow seat by a comfortable margin of 1,35,159 votes over the Samajwadi Party's Ravidas Mehrotra.

Union minister of state for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt won the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha seat in Uttarakhand, defeating Congress's Prakash Joshi by 3,34,548 votes.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari defeated his nearest rival, Congress's Vikas Thakare, by 1,37,603 votes to win the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, while Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal scored an easy victory in Mumbai North.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, contesting his first Lok Sabha elections, defeated his nearest rival Lalit Yadav of the Congress in Rajasthan's Alwar by 48,282 votes.

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur secured a fifth term from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur seat, defeating Congress's Satpal Raizada by 1,82,357 votes.

MoS Panchayati Raj Kapil Patil lost to Suresh Gopinath Mhatre of NCP (Sharad Pawar) in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi and the Congress' Kalyan Vaijnath Rao Kale defeated BJP leader and MoS Railways Raosaheb Danve in Jalna.

Bhaskar Bhagare of NCP (Sharad Pawar) clinched the Dindori seat in the state, trouncing Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Panwar by 1,13,199 votes.

MoS Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore is trailing the SP's RK Chaudhary by 70,292 votes.

Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju secured the Arunachal West seat defeating his nearest rival, Nabam Tuki of the Congress, by 1,00,738 votes.

Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner) and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Jodhpur) won by 55,711 and 1,15,677 votes, respectively.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya won Gujarat's Porbandar by a comfortable margin of 3,83,360 votes.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan won by 1,19,836 votes against Pranab Prakash Das of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha's Sambalpur. Culture Minister and BJP President in Telangana G Kishan Reddy clinched the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, defeating his nearest Congress rival Danam Nagender by 49944 votes.

Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Shobha Karandlaje (BJP) posted wins in Dharwad and Bangalore North Lok Sabha segments, respectively, according to the Election Commission, while another Union minister, Bhagwanth Khuba, was defeated in Bidar by Karnataka Minister Eshwar Khandre's son Sagar Khandre.

Union minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways Shantanu Thakur was leading in West Bengal's Bongaon seat by 73,693 votes.

Union minister of state for commerce and industry Anupriya Patel defeated Samajwadi Party's Ramesh Chand Bind by a margin of 37,810 votes in Mirzapur parliamentary seat of Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.

After 12 hours of counting of votes that began at 8 am, the BJP won or was ahead in 240 seats to emerge as the single largest party, a far cry from the 303 it had won last time in the 543-member Lok Sabha to mark the return of coalition politics.

BJP's key allies N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) were leading or winning 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar respectively. With the support of its other allies, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was on course to reach the 272 majority mark.